


Dear Teach

by Rainbow_Volcano



Category: Fire Emblem, Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: And yet, Dancing, During Timeskip (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Letters, Post-Canon, Scheming Claude von Riegan, Sunflowers, The Golden Gifts, You don't think Claude would make you hurt so bad, fear the deer, this idea has probably been done before but hopefully its cute enough to warrant its existence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:34:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 4,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23868343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainbow_Volcano/pseuds/Rainbow_Volcano
Summary: Claude's letters to Byleth after she disappears off the face of the earth. He doesn't know how to sort through any of his feelings, or if he should even bother, but his friends encourage him to try. He recounts the struggles he faces in the five years before he sees her again.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 12
Kudos: 91
Collections: The Golden Gifts - Claudeleth Fic/Art Exchange





	1. First Letter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [frappu_chi_no](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frappu_chi_no/gifts).



> A gift for frappu_chi_no for the Golden Gifts Claudeleth exchange. Chi requested "sunflowers, sunlight, dancing, and something based off of the song 'Seasons' by Greyson Chance". I was initially a little worried because floral themes aren't really within my comfort zone, but this turned out to be super fun to write! 
> 
> The hardest part of writing this was actually figuring out the calendar haha. I had to start a new game and skip through everything to make sure the events all lined up neatly. And sadly I couldn't think of a name for the wyvern. 
> 
> I hope this lives up to the amazing art you sent me, Chi! And for everyone else, I just hope you enjoy :)

**4 Great Tree Moon 1180**

Dear Teach,

It’s been a year since we met, and a week since you went missing.

It feels weird, knowing that no one knows where you are. Honestly it feels like I just haven’t seen you in a while, like I’m on vacation. Like I’m going to go back to the monastery any day now and find you asleep at your desk. Crazy as it is, that idea has made me almost stand up and walk straight to Garreg Mach several times.

Marianne suggested I write to you, but I don’t know what to say. I don’t know why I should write anything to you. You’re going to come back in a few days, and I’ll tell you everything in person.

But, since I’ve already committed, I suppose I should follow through. What do people normally write about in letters? Current events? I suppose the grass is starting to turn green again, and some flowers are starting to bloom.

Well, I suppose I could tell you about what’s been happening since you’ve been gone. It’s a lot. My grandfather’s health gets worse by the day, and war is the worst medicine. I don’t expect him to survive through the end of the year, but some of the doctors tell me otherwise. Their words are convincing, but they have fear swimming in their eyes. If you were here, you’d be able to know whether they’re lying or not. At the very least, you wouldn’t lie to me.

Most of the Golden Deer students are staying at House Riegan right now, since travel is nigh impossible. Hilda was kidnapped by Holst the moment word got out, and Lorenz is cradled safely in his daddy’s hands. But everyone else is here. Sometimes it’s nice; it feels like a slumber party. But every day is a little bit harder. I know everyone is anxious to go home. In troubled times, you want to go where you feel safest.

Which is why I wish you were still here.

Claude


	2. Second Letter

**8 Harpstring Moon 1180**

Dear Teach,

So I have to tell you, I didn’t expect writing that last letter to do me any good. I nearly threw it away after I’d finished. But Ignatz and Lysithea convinced me to keep it. Ignatz told me that having a placeholder, something to make it feel like I was still talking to you, could help. Help with what exactly he didn’t say, and he didn’t clarify when I asked him why I would need help. Lysithea said that when she was trading letters back and forth with Cyril, they made her really excited. Even when she knew she could see him every day, even though his letters were short and near illegible, just the act of writing out the letter made her feel better. 

I told them I didn’t need to feel better. I didn’t need help. It was kind of them to offer, but I’m doing perfectly fine. You’re going to come back as soon as you can, and the fight Edelgard started is going to end before the next moon rises. Writing letters to you is pointless because they’re not solving a problem because I don’t have one in the first place.

Yet here I am.

It’s been a month since your disappearance, as well as Rhea’s, and the rumors grow like weeds. Some say you ran away, or hopped on Rhea’s back and flew into the sky, or sank to a secret tunnel underground. Most say you’re dead. I refuse to say anything, except to my grandfather, who forgets everything I tell him the next day.

Everyone’s gone back home now, and the place feels lonelier and lonelier. Back in my home country, we had a saying that roughly meant “no house should be unfilled”. But I know everyone’s alright. You raised a tough, resourceful group of students, Teach, and no war Edelgard can throw at us is going to knock us down.

Claude


	3. Third Letter

**24 Blue Sea Moon 1180**

Dear Teach,

Do you remember this day last year? You invited me to tea, and gave me a board game that I’d never even heard of before. It was astoundingly difficult; I couldn’t believe a game so challenging would even be sold. For the longest time, I thought the rules were arbitrary and random.

But then when we played it together, everything clicked. It was like I had been missing a gear, and you brought the final one that I hadn’t known I was missing. You’ve always been like that, like something I hadn’t known I needed. I didn’t think I required someone like you in my life until I had you.

And now that you’re gone, I know very, very well.

Sunflowers are in bloom again. They were always your favorite. You never said it aloud, but I saw your smile and the way your eyes lit up every time you saw one. I picked a few for you, and put them in a vase on my desk. I know you’re supposed to accept gifts on your birthday, not give them, but since you didn’t get me anything I thought I might as well fill in the gap myself. 

My grandfather didn’t remember it was my birthday, but he doesn’t remember much of anything anymore. His eyes will flicker with recognition when he sees me, but he can’t recall my name. A lot of the other houses are fighting and bickering, and many have urgently requested I sit in on their meetings. Technically I’m not allowed to, but even if I was, I don’t want to leave my grandfather’s side just yet. I already had to say too many goodbyes too early. I don’t want this to be another one.

Every day something new happens, so it’s tough to get a read on the situation. My birthday present from Dimitri was news of a slaughter in the North and huge territorial gain for the Empire. Hilda got me Almyran Pine Needle tea like a normal friend. I wanted to tell Dimitri how much I hated his present, but his eyes have changed. Everything is changing. I’m even having trouble scheming, if you can believe it.

All I can do is press onwards. You better be doing the same.

Claude


	4. Fourth Letter

**12 Wyvern Moon 1180**

Dear Teach,

My grandfather passed away last night. I held his hand as his eyes glazed over, and for a while after I sat next to his bed staring into the fireplace. Soon everyone the Alliance over will flock to my side, and I’ll become the leader, and suddenly fighting off the Empire will be my responsibility. I’m not afraid, but I want to hold off on it for just a little while longer.

I thought about a lot of things while I stared into that fireplace. I thought of the month after you lost Jeralt, and I wondered if the empty chasm in my chest felt anything close to the one in yours. I wondered why it felt exactly like some nights after we lost you. I wondered how my mother would feel.

This war did not take my grandfather from me, but it did take many other grandfathers away from many others. Sometimes I just want to laugh at how silly it all feels. Edelgard was my classmate. My friend. Just a few months ago, we ate lunch in the dining hall and I made her laugh so hard that milk spurted out of her nose. But other times, it all feels insurmountable. A massive, well-trained army is slaughtering everyone in their path. I go back and forth between feeling like I need to reprimand an idiot friend and defeat the Adrestian Empire.

The sunflowers on my desk have all wilted. They shouldn’t have lasted as long as they did, but I wanted them to last a little longer. Every time I saw them, I thought of your smile. With them gone, will you still be smiling?

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be Leader of the Leicester Alliance. I don’t have the resources or the manpower to launch a counterattack. And besides that, the Alliance houses are fractured and divided. No one can agree on anything. I don’t even know where I should begin my scheming.

Without you, I don’t even know if I should try.

Claude.


	5. Fifth Letter

**13 Wyvern Moon 1180**

Dear Teach,

As it turns out, there’s a whole lot more bureaucracy required to become Leader than I thought. The whole country has been expecting this eventuality ever since I was recognized as heir, and yet nothing is being done.

The ceremony is scheduled for the 13th of Guardian Moon, 3 moons from now. Several board members suggested pushing the ceremony back to the 28th of Horsebow Moon, but there was no way I was willing to wait 11 months. Those who suggested the later date mysteriously got food poisoning after the meeting, and it was taken as a sign from the Goddess.

I’m tired of watching everyone around me suffer. Every day that passes is another day further from my dream, and I’m not allowing that any more. Though I may not be official yet, I’ve attended every meeting and started listening. I don’t have any concrete plans for the moment, and even if I did, I don’t have your secret magic that makes them come true. But one day, I will. And the moment that day comes is the moment I am changing everything.

Rest well, my friend. When you return, we’re saving Fodlan and putting a stop to all this madness.

Claude


	6. Sixth Letter

**13 Guardian Moon 1181**

Dear Teach,

Say hello to the Leader of the Leicester Alliance. I had so much regalia on that I thought I might suffocate from it. I looked dashing, though, and I think all the eligible cuties in the crowd thought so too. I wish my grandfather could have seen.

I thought I might see some of the Golden Deer in attendance at the ceremony, but no such luck. I didn’t expect to see Leonie, Raphael, or Ignatz of course, but I was hoping to spot Lysithea, Hilda, or Marianne. Hell, I may have even been hoping to see Lorenz’s annoying face. Reportedly he’s growing his hair out. One sly comment or dismissive glace, and he would have been up in arms about it. It would have been fun.

Alas, I’ll have to wait to mock my ex-classmate. I’d like to think that if you had been here today, you’d be proud of me. Though I expect you’ll berate me for not graduating first. In my defense, the school literally collapsed.

My sunflower vase is empty, but it won’t be that way forever. The sunflowers are going to bloom again in the summer, and I’ll pick some for you, and put them safely in my vase where I can watch them bloom all through the fall. In fact, I might order a garden built and have it filled with sunflowers. It sounds nice, don’t you think? You’ll get to see it if you come back. A little incentive for my dear fickle professor.

I’m changing it all, Teach. I’ve got a scheme that even you won’t see coming. I’m going to keep everyone as safe as I can, and bide my time. The Fodlan that’s beyond the next dawn, I know it’s coming. Things are going to get a whole hell of a lot worse before they get better, but they’re going to get better.

Claude


	7. Seventh Letter

**28 Lone Moon 1181**

Dear Teach,

A year is an awfully long time to take a leave of absence, don’t you think? I’m starting to wonder if you were really just fired, and telling everyone you died to save face.

No, you didn’t die. You’re not dead. You made a promise, and you’re sticking to it, and I’ll see you in four years at the Goddess Tower with everyone. If I keep saying it, maybe I’ll eventually believe it.

Today I found a wyvern hatchling in a burned village near the base of the mountain range surrounding Garreg Mach. Before you look at me with that judgmental stare of yours, my being there had nothing to do with my crazy plan to walk to the monastery and see you. The soldiers who attacked the town weren’t waving a banner, so we had to investigate to see where the attack came from. There was no conclusive evidence, so we had to leave empty handed. Well, mostly.

I couldn’t abandon the little guy. Suddenly the place you knew all your life is gone, and there’s no one around who seems to care. And his scales were an interesting color: white. I’ve never seen a white wyvern before. I had to take him in. I don’t know what I’ll name him yet, but I’m certain he will be a valuable piece on my chessboard. And he’s adorable.

An Almyran envoy arrived the other day, with a special request from the king for me to secede the rule to someone else, and stay in Almyra. I refused, of course. There’s too much to be done here. I set him away with a parcel of Leicester Cortania in a show of goodwill. It’s not much of a scheme, but if Lorenz was ever right about anything, it’s that good tea can sway stubborn minds. 

We hear more grim news from the North every day. The Emperor is pushing further and further into Kingdom Territory, and with every inch she gains, Dimitri loses a piece of his sanity. For now, I’ve convinced our border houses to offer asylum to all kingdom refugees. I wish I could do more.

Claude


	8. Eigth Letter

**6 Great Tree Moon 1181**

Dear Teach,

I found a letter that my grandfather had left for me. He must have written it while I was still at the academy. I’d be shocked if he was coherent enough to write during his final months after I left.

The letter itself isn’t particularly interesting. He advises me to set a good example, be careful of the storms approaching from the West, the works. He told me to try opening myself up more, and I wanted to tell him that I had. He asked if I was eating properly, if I was growing big and strong, if I found a way for my “unruly curls” to cooperate.

But the thing that got me thinking was the fact that he’d clearly written this letter with the intention of receiving a reply. He was expecting to live long enough to see me come home.

And for a harrowing moment, I wondered: what if _I_ don’t survive to see you come home? Or, what if I’m writing these letters to a corpse? What if I am the only one who will ever read these? What if I spend the rest of my life gathering sunflowers and thinking of smiles and yearning for a past that I will never have?

I don’t like thinking this way. I sound like Dimitri. I’m certain if you were here, you would tell me that these letters aren’t pointless, that I am writing to someone who will one day read them, that my dream will come to fruition. That one day I won’t have to imagine your smile when I see a sunflower.

But you’re not here. And you can’t say any of that.

Claude


	9. Ninth Letter

**24 Blue Sea Moon 1181**

Dear Teach,

In my homeland, twenty is an auspicious number. It’s the age that young adults become full adults, and we have a special coming-of-age ritual. On their 20th birthday, the young person wakes at dawn and hunts until dusk for ten days. Their duty is to bring home enough food to feed the entire village. Then, at night, the meat is prepared and slow roasted over a fire while people dance. The celebration lasts ten days and ten nights, symbolizing the ups and downs over the two decades you’ve lived. It’s a way for the young person to thank everyone who’s ever provided meals for them, and a way for them to put to use the skills their teachers have taught them.

My homeland is very far away. In fact, it has never felt farther.

The Empire’s forces will reach Fhirdiad any day now. If they take the capital, it will be a severe blow. If I had never left home, I would be hunting right now, with nothing but a dagger and my bow in the forest air. I would hear snippets of rumors about unrest in Fodlan, but it wouldn’t affect me. Sometimes I still feel like that. An outsider, fighting a war they don’t belong in.

But even though I haven’t spent very much time here, I have seen so much beauty in Fodlan. I have come to love it. It may not be my first home, but it is one of my homes, and I want to protect it with everything I have.

And if I’m being honest? You were one of my homes too. I worry that I will lose everything just as I lost you. I worry that one day I’ll wake up with Edelgard’s axe at my throat, and she’ll open the window to reveal that all of my scheming has gotten everyone I love killed.

But until that does happen, I’ll keep fighting. If Edelgard’s axe isn’t at my throat, then I can still find a way to keep it that way. I don’t know how to end this bloodshed, and I don’t know if I can. I don’t know if I can achieve my dream. I don’t know if you’re alive. But I’m not giving up. I will not stop until the world I envision has been realized.

Claude


	10. Final Letter

**17 Verdant Rain Moon 1183**

Dear Teach,

Sorry it’s been so long. A lot has happened. The royal family has been reported dead. No one has found Dimitri’s body.

The news is terrifying, but obviously I can’t let that show. No one is more terrified than me, Teach, trust me. But showing even a fraction of that fear will make everyone think the war unwinnable, and that would severely hurt my scheme. It’s a good thing I’ve always been good at hiding my emotions.

I’m now the leader of the forces against the Empire. It’s as if every breath I take, I can feel Edelgard’s axe at my throat. She’s found a Hero’s Relic, and it pulses with the blood coursing through her veins, in sync with the rhythm of her hatred. My sleeping schedule burned in a fire, and my eyes look worse than Marianne’s did when she first came to the academy. I train, and scheme, and sign paperwork, and go to meetings, and placate greedy nobles, and tell white lies to everyone running for their lives.

I came across the legendary weapon Failnaught, and at first, it gave me a great surge of hope. The raw strength it possesses may not compare to Edelgard, but it carries my arrows farther and with more precision than I’d ever thought possible. The strength will have to come from my arms. Having it only paints a bigger target on my head, though I don’t particularly mind. Better me than someone who can’t defend themselves.

My little wyvern has grown so much, and every day he grows bigger and stronger. I think he’s trying to outdo me. Guess he’s got a scheme of his own. I’ve been practicing archery while riding him, flying through the sky. It’s much more difficult than it looks. But I don’t have time to lose. Besides, the wind blowing through my hair gives me a very important reminder: even if the people perish, the land will survive.

The sunflowers are in full bloom. I’ve started a flower garden right outside my window, and every time the sunlight catches on their petals I imagine your smile. I don’t have time to tend to them myself, but one day I will. It seems the most impossible right now, with Dimitri dead and you missing and the Empire surrounding us on all sides. But when I look at that garden, either from my window or atop my flying steed, and I imagine your smile, I want peace so badly that I’ll plan any scheme to get it.

I don’t know what the Empire is doing. I don’t know where Rhea is. I don’t know where you are. I tell everyone that the both of you are safe, that everything is going to be fine. The role of religion, as I’ve discovered, is to give people comfort when they cannot find any anywhere else. If I tell them the archbishop is safe, the relief in their hearts gives them the hope to see tomorrow.

And the same is true of you. If I tell myself that you are safe, that you are alive, then I find the strength to continue onwards.

Come home as soon as you can, Teach. I miss you so much. And so do all of your students. I’ve never been one for prayers, but if I was, I would ask the Goddess to send you straight into my arms and to keep you there for the rest of our lives.

Love, Claude


	11. The Day He Fought For

Byleth re-folded the final letter and set it back inside its envelope. Sunlight trickled into their bedchambers, and out her window she could see a garden of sunflowers in full bloom, with a large white Wyvern lazing at the edges. She sat at Claude’s old desk, and marveled at the warmth filling up in her chest. She placed the letter back in the box alongside its brothers and ran her fingers along the edges of the envelopes.

Claude entered the room full stride, his head stuffed in a stack of documents. “Hey, By, so about the war meeting this afternoo—” he stopped when he saw the box in her lap. His throat ran dry, and he swallowed.

“Hello, sweetheart,” Byleth said. “Why didn’t you ever write me another letter?”

He sighed, and settled the papers on the desk next to Byleth. “Don’t the words ‘personal effects’ mean anything to you?” He was dressed in flowing regal garb, a crown resting atop his brow, but his tone was just as playful and teasing as it was when he was a student.

“They’re addressed to me,” she replied coolly. She too wore her semi-formal attire, a long silky skirt that grazed the ground when she walked.

He smirked, a sigh escaping his lips. “I suppose they are.”

“Why didn’t you write me another letter?” she asked again. He chuckled, and looked out to the sunflower garden.

“They became too painful. Stopping to analyze the situation and my feelings around it started to be too taxing, to take up too much time. I had to fight a war alone.”

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

She set the box on his desk and stood, and wrapped her arms around his waist, nuzzling her cheek into his back. He settled a hand atop of hers, dual bands around their ring fingers glinting in the sunlight.

“I didn’t know you planted the garden for me,” she murmured.

Claude chuckled. “Why did you think I planted the garden?”

She hummed in response, and laced their fingers together atop his stomach. “I can’t believe you never sent those to me.”

“You’ve read them. What part of any of what I’d written made you think I _actually_ planned on showing you their contents?”

“Your eighth letter, when you mentioned finding the letter your grandfather wrote for you. It seemed like you wanted me to see them.” She stopped, and pulled herself out of his grip. “In fact, it seemed like you left them there specifically so I would find them.”

Claude turned around to face her, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Guilty.”

She smiled. “What a terrible scheme.”

He wrapped his arms around her waist lazily, letting his strong forearms rest on her hips. “My sincerest apologies, Your Highness Archbishop Byleth, Hero of The Dawn of Fodlan’s Reunification. Whatever can I do to return to your good graces?”

“Dance with me.”

Mischief and delight twinkling in his eyes, Claude scooped up his wife. She yelped against his arms while he undid the latch on the window and let out a sharp whistle. With one more mischievous look, he leapt.

The wyvern caught them with ease, and carried them safely to the ground. He lead her to the center of the garden, and her smile upon seeing the sunflowers made every single moment of the worst five years of his life worth it.

He placed one hand on her waist, and guided her hand to his shoulder. She had never smiled so brightly, except perhaps on their wedding day. But this was better. The wedding was full of guests they were forced to invite, and they had to wear the most ridiculous and extravagant clothes in history. Here, they were alone save for each other and the sunflowers reaching to their waists. Their clothes may have been formal, but they danced in the wind that guided Claude and Byleth’s footwork.

“You know,” Byleth began. She was so much more talkative when it was just the two of them. “My father didn’t tell me much about my mother. But he said she loved flowers. He told me his favorite part of the day was seeing my mother’s smile after he’d given her a bouquet.”

Claude smiled, and tilted his head. A lock of hair fell lose. Byleth raised the hand resting on his shoulder to tuck it gently behind his ear.

“In a perfect world, I would have gotten to see that. Your parents would have been at our wedding, and Jeralt would have told me that story himself. And Sitri would have cried happy tears.”

Byleth leaned in and settled her head on Claude’s shoulder. It was broad and strong, the kind of shoulder you could melt into. And, much to Claude’s delight, Byleth always did.

“I still can’t believe that was your last letter,” Byleth commented.

He laughed, and tried to look down at her face despite the awkward angle. “What else were you hoping I had written?” Claude asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Something sweet. Something that felt like an ending.”

He was quiet for a moment, brow a little furrowed and eyes shifting from frozen to hyper alert. Byleth knew this expression well: his scheming face.

“Dear Teach,” he finally said. “I know it’s been years since I’ve written my last letter, and for some reason, you’re really upset by this fact. In my defense, you’ve been with me for most of that time. Anything I needed to say to you, I would just say.”

He stopped dancing. Byleth lifted her head but kept their arms in place. Their regalia billowed about around them in the breeze.

“I love you. With all that I am. I’ve waited for this day for many years. I’ve fought and schemed and clawed my way to this day, to a day I can see your smile surrounded by your favorite flowers with you by my side. In fact, I might have to start believing in this goddess you say lived in your head. Because she has answered my prayers. You’re in my arms, and you will be here for the rest of our lives.”

Claude didn’t have to imagine the smile, or the kiss, that followed.


End file.
